I saw him, shortly after he became an item on either Oprah or 60 Minutes or something like that, giving portions of his "last" lecture. I was deeply impressed with him. I haven't looked at the book, so I have no idea how it developed or was developed from his thoughts upon learning that he was dying. However .... I would strongly suggest that you look him up on YouTube -- his much publicized lecture is there. And for me, at least, it is powerful. Julie Krueger On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 3:43 PM, Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I am still trying to condense my thoughts on recent reads, but I've > run into a snag. Allow me to briefly explain: > > One of the books I read was called "The Last Lecture" by a Carnegie > Mellon professor Randy Pausch. My basic review of it _WAS_ this: > > I ran into this book while browsing. The title caught my eye. I had > never heard of Randy Pausch, but the synopsis seemed like something > possibly intriguing (something I always like to have in a book) and > uplifting (something that is sometimes nice if not too schmaltzy a la > Mitch Albom etc.) > > A man diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer writes about his 'last > lecture'. Apparently, this is an exercise which a lot of public > speakers go through -- even if not actually delivering it, they write > it to see what it would be. In his case, this really would be a 'last > lecture' -- or at least a last lecture of note. The thing that caught > me as a surprise was that this book was really just sort of ABOUT his > last lecture. In other words, there was very little of his last > lecture in it. He would begin a chapter "I then said..." but he didn't > quote himself, he just went on and on about what he had sort of said > and then related it more to his current (at the time the book was > written) situation. > > But a lecture, especially this incredible LAST one needs to be concise > and poignant BY ITSELF. In this case, it WAS delivered and by all > humble accounts (his) people were very impressed. > > But as it stands, as a book, it took on a kind of moribund tone, not > because he was dying, or because of his writing style or his attitude > (which was remarkably good considering his prognosis) but just because > it seemed like such a pointless thing to do (write a book attempting > to expand something that you should have already done perfectly - and > apparently DID) while you were dying -- because, in my opinion, he > didn't do it very well: that is write the book. > > By the end of the book I was perplexed by several things: > > a) he was still alive and 'well' > b) there wasn't so much as a single quoted piece of text from this lecture > c) there was a website advertised on the back cover called > www.lastlecture.com which consisted SOLELY of a brief biography with > updates about what was going on in his life and a link to buy his > book. I visited this website about two weeks ago. The biography at > that time gave me no indication that he was on a downward spiral or > anything like that. > > I did a bit of research and learned that his 'story' had been > Oprahized and he actually retold his 'last lecture' on there or > something like that and he had turned into a phenomenon. As far as I > was concerned that was even worse to know. It was all so > distasteful... > > and TWO years after the fact, he was STILL ALIVE. > > Well, last Thursday, Randy Pausch died. And I don't feel any > differently than I did before I found that out (five minutes ago). > > this concerns me in that it doesn't concern me, > p > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html >